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Time to check in: What European hotel assets can offer Asian investors

by Marc Socker

The European hotel market has generally been under the radar of domestic and offshore investors alike, but in 2016, an influx of capital was chasing European hotels. Asian investors bought up a number of high-profile hotel portfolios, accounting for about €2 billion (US$2.1 billion) — close to 10 percent — of European hotel investment last year, according to CBRE. Although this represented a minor share of the total spent in 2016, the investment volume from Asian buyers last year was five times what it was during the same period in 2007. It also represented the fastest-growing region for capital flows into the sector.

Today, many institutional investors around the world are investing in hotel real estate to achieve diversification, to help boost income in their multi-asset portfolios, and for liability matching requirements, given the longer-dated income.

Although 10 years ago hotels were considered alternative real estate investments — outside of the tradition